The VERY FIRST STEALTH game to ever exist, was created by Looking Glass Studios.
The game itself has been placed on numerous hall of fame lists, and sold nearly two million copies by the year 2000.

THIEF!!! STOP THIEEF!!! Everything you steal along the way has a price worth on it. At the end of each mission, you cash in your rewards and can pick up more or better gear for your next mission.
Every light, every shadow, every type of floor or ground you step on will either mask your pressence or give you away and reveal your posisition to the roaming guards.
The best part of this game? Don't get caught!

The Story

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The game's protagonist Garrett, is described as a homeless orphan on the City's streets. He is caught while attempting to pickpocket a suspicious man who reveals himself to be a Keeper.Impressed by Garrett's ability to see him, he offers him the chance to join his order. Garrett accepts, but later leaves the order to pursue a life of thievery. Years later, Garrett works as a thief, and is under pressure to join a crime ring. As punishment for his failure to pay a protection fee, he is targeted for assassination by the crime lord Ramirez. Garrett evades the assassins, and robs Ramirez's mansion in retaliation. Following this, he is approached by a woman named Viktoria—the representative of an anonymous client who was impressed by Garrett's theft from Ramirez. He is contracted to steal a sword from Constantine, an eccentric nobleman who recently arrived in the City. After Garrett completes the mission, Viktoria takes him to Constantine, who explains that he hired Garrett to steal his own sword as a test. Constantine offers him a fortune to steal The Eye—a gem kept within a sealed and deserted Hammerite cathedral.

To reach the cathedral, Garrett ventures through Old Quarter, a haunted, abandoned district of the City. Through an opening in the cathedral, The Eye informs Garrett of a nearby Keeper sanctuary, where he may learn how to unseal the cathedral. There, Garrett discovers that the cathedral was sealed to prevent the City's destruction by the Trickster. He learns that there are four talismans needed to remove the seal: two hidden in ancient ruins beneath the City, and two inside a Hammerite temple. Garrett recovers the talismans and returns to the cathedral. After unsealing the cathedral, he learns that its inhabitants had been killed and made undead by The Eye. He returns The Eye to Constantine, who reveals himself to be the Trickster. Viktoria says that The Eye requires a flesh eye to function; she binds Garrett with vines and removes his right eye. The Trickster places it on the gemstone, and the two disappear through a portal. Garrett, left for dead, is found and freed by two Keepers. During his escape from the Trickster's mansion, he learns that the Trickster plans to use The Eye to revert the world to a wild state

After Garrett escapes the mansion, he seeks help from the Order of the Hammer. However, he finds that the Trickster has attacked the Hammerite temple. In a refuge beneath the temple, he finds Hammerite survivors who provide him with a booby-trapped replica of The Eye. Garrett descends into the Trickster's domain, where he finds the Trickster performing a ritual with The Eye to complete his plan. Garrett stealthily substitutes The Eye with its copy, which kills the Trickster. Later, Garrett has acquired a mechanical replacement for his lost eye. On the streets of the City, a Keeper approaches Garrett and claims that he will soon require the Keepers' help. Garrett dismisses him, and as he walks away, the Keeper warns of the encroaching "metal age".

Overall this is truly a game that should be checked out for the sake of fun adventure.
That is, if your not too fussy about older style graphics.

Thief II: The Metal Age (2000)

The second installment of the thief series. Personally this one is my all time favorite of the entire series so far.

The Story

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The plot continues some time after the events of the first game. The "Metal Age" has come, and the city has changed with new technology, like cameras and steam powered robots, brought forth by the Mechanists, the current most powerful religion in the city. The sheriff Gorman Truart rules over the city attempting to clean up the streets, including the cynical protagonist, Garrett, who wants nothing to do with saving the world. Like the original Thief, the story takes place in three "Acts"—each one "punctuated by a cutscene that will further progress the storyline", according to Thief II level designer Emil Pagliarulo. The first Act sees Garrett as a "master thief, performing classic thieving runs", while, in the second, he becomes more of a "private investigator" character. In the third Act, Garrett is cast as a "James Bond-type agent, working from a 'base' and setting out to accomplish specific missions".

In the beginning, Garrett works on separate missions, including helping his associate Basso clear a way into a mansion, collecting quick cash at the warehouse by the Dock, framing Sheriff Gorman Truart's subordinate Lt. Hagen, as well as escaping an ambush by the City Watch. He is approached by the Keepers, including Keeper Artemus, to go to the Keeper Library to listen to a prophecy, which warns of the approaching of the Metal Age. Not feeling involved, Garrett leaves but not before Artemus giving him a letter, informing him that he can obtain information from the one who is hired to kill him by eavesdropping at a meeting, held at a Mechanist Church.

In the meeting, Garrett hears the sheriff talking to the Mechanist leader, Father Karras. Karras has transformed a person into a mechanical 'Servant', developed a kind of weapon and demonstrated the process by killing a woman. The sheriff promised to supply twenty subjects for the experiment, and his words are captured by Karras' recording device, which is then kept at the vault at First City Bank and Trust. To exert pressure on the sheriff to find out who is hired to kill him, Garrett steals the device and infiltrate the sheriff's estate, only to find that Gorman Truart has been assassinated. A keyring at the crime scene bears the emblem of Lt. Mosley of the City Watch. Garrett starts to follow Mosley and trails her one night as she is delivering a letter, which is picked up by a Pagan. The Pagan is attacked by Mechanists and disappears into a cemetery, which hides a portal linked to the Maw of Chaos. Following the trail of blood, Garrett meets the Pagan wood nymph Viktoria, who persuaded Garrett to join her in the course of opposing the Mechanists.

With information provided by Viktoria, Garrett infiltrates the new Mechanist tower Angelwatch, the Mechanists' staging area Markham's Isle, the Lost City, and a noble mask collector's mansion, and they figure out Karras' scheme: he has made 30 Servants, each equipped with a mask and an agricultural device, the Cultivator, and the Servants have been sent to the nobles, who have extensive gardens. Followed by a signal released by a guilding beacon at the Mechanist cathedral, Soulforge, the Cultivators will release a Rust Gas, which feeds and multiplies on organic matters. The gas will then consume all lives and make Karras' dream of a machinery world come true. Viktoria suggests that Garrett can get into Soulforge, activate the guilding beacon to draw the Servants to the cathedral, and release the Rust Gas inside to backfire the plan on Karras. Garrett however thinks the plan is suicide and leaves. Later, Artemus informs Garrett that Viktoria has begun an assault on Soulforge. When Garrett arrives she is being attacked by the Mechanists' mechanical beasts. Realizing that there is not enough plants to sustain the chain reaction of the Rust Gas, Viktoria sacrifices herself and fills the cathedral with vines, while Garrett carries out her plan to sabotage Karras' scheme.

As the Rust Gas is released and kills Karras, Garrett is contacted by Artemus, who tells him Viktoria's and Karass' deaths are 'all is as it was written'. When asked whether there is more, Artemus replies yes, followed by Garrett telling him to 'tell me'.

STILL ranked in my books as the greatest stealth game made to date, full of adventure, surprises, hidden rooms, passages, opponents, puzzles, mazes and best of all, stealth. Never have I ever enjoyed or played a game as much as this one.
Yeaaa, the graphics may be a little dated to most that make a big deal out of it, but if you can look past that, its ten times better then Minecraft. ;-)

Thief: Deadly Shadows (2004)

The thrid part of the classical thief series that fell through for alot of fans, due to the fact, you played as third person. Personally I didn't enjoy the idea of it at first, but I ended up looking past that and enjoyed the game anyways. All your previous items from the first and second game that where available to purchase have been scraped and revamped with new and different gear.
Instead of Rope Arrows to help you climb up to high locations, you get these gloves that allow you to scale up only jagged walls. Thus I felt the freedom was slightly cut down, but whatever it was still fun to play.

The Story

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The game begins when Garrett steals a rare opal from a nobleman's castle. After fencing it, he is contacted by Keeper Artemus to steal two Artifacts; The Builder's Chalice and the Jacknall's Paw, in exchange for access to the Keeper Prophecies. After hearing about a coming Dark Age, Garrett reads about a lost book, the Compendium of Reproach, which supposedly offers information about it. Garrett manages to steal it, the "Glyph" Key required to open it and the third Artifact, the Kurshok Crown. The Keepers read the Compendium's prophecy, including: "When the progress of time ceases, the evil one will be pointed out for all to see". Not willing to wait, Garrett realizes that the prophecy might be referring to the clocktower in the city being stopped rather than time itself, and so Garrett sabotages its gigantic mechanism, stopping the clock but causing the entire clocktower to collapse, after which it appears to point directly at First Keeper Orland's office.

Caduca, the Keepers' Interpreter of the Prophecies, is found murdered. Orland blames Garrett for it, and fixes a trial where Garrett is "found" guilty. Garrett manages to escape, causing Orland to send the Keeper Enforcers, an elite unit of telepathically-connected assassins, after Garrett. Garrett is contacted by a group of friendly Keepers, mentioning that the clocktower's rubble forms an arrow which points directly at the Keeper Library instead. Orland plans to promote a young girl named Gamall to replace Caduca. Garrett believes that Orland is the "Brethren and Betrayer" mentioned in Keeper prophecy, so he returns to the deserted lower library of the Keeper Compound, and finds a note addressed to him. Garrett then encounters a mysterious old woman, who uses Glyph magic to bring the nearby Keeper statues to life and instructs them to search for Garrett and kill him. The woman vanishes and Garrett eventually escapes the ambush.

Garrett visits Inspector Drept and mentions the old woman, whom Drept realizes to be the Hag. Drept advises Garrett to search the abandoned Shalebridge Cradle, as that was where Drept first saw the Hag. The Cradle had once been an orphanage, and then an insane asylum. The building was abandoned after a fire broke out, killing all its asylum inhabitants, and became a dark and haunted place. In the attic of the Cradle, Garrett finds a painting and the glowing white spirit of the young girl Gamall, who is actually Lauryl. It beckons Garrett to help her trapped spirit leave the Cradle, by finding her old belongings and removing them from the building. To do this, Garrett returns to the past by entering a cage with a belonging of an asylum patient, taking on his/her appearance. However, Garrett is no longer able to leave, as the Cradle now remembers him. Garrett enters the past as himself and tricks the Cradle into "thinking" that he had committed suicide by jumping out of the highest tower, landing safely outside in the present time. Lauryl's spirit leads Garrett to her secret tomb, which is covered in magical Glyphs left by the Hag, enabling her to use Lauryl's appearance. Years ago, the Hag killed Lauryl for the purpose of becoming Interpreter, so she could harness the Glyphs and destroy the Keepers. Garrett washes away the Glyph marks on Lauryl's grave with her own blood. Gamall the Hag, about to become Interpreter in a ceremony, loses her disguise and is revealed to be a hideous monster, and attacks the Keepers, ruins the Library and flees.

The Hag has found the Final Glyph, and has stolen two Artifacts from the Keepers. Orland wants Garrett to find Gamall's hidden lair, learn what she wants the Artifacts for, kill her, and find and destroy the Final Glyph. Inside Gamall's underground lair, Garrett steals back the Chalice and the Paw, and discovers the Glyph of Unbinding, hidden there by Gamall years ago. Keeper Artemus appears in Gamall's lair, and reading a map they discover that the five Artifacts - the Eye, the Heart, the Crown, the Chalice, and the Paw — must to be placed in specific locations in the City to activate the Final Glyph, a safeguard in case the Keeper Glyphs are used for evil, which, when activated, all Glyph magic and Keepers' power will be destroyed. Garrett goes to the Wieldstrom Museum in Auldale to steal the remaining three Artifacts before the Hag is able to find them herself. Keeper Artemus is waiting for Garrett outside the Museum and asks him to hand over the Artifacts. Orland then hurriedly appears and tells Garrett that he activate and not destroy the Final Glyph. Keeper Artemus turns out to be the Hag in disguise and kills Orland.

Garrett places the Artifacts into the corresponding positions to activate the Final Glyph, causing all Keeper Glyph magic to be destroyed. The Keeper's key symbol burns into his hand as he places the final Artifact, revealing Garrett to be the One True Keeper mentioned in Keeper prophecies. The Hag and her walking statues lose all their Glyph powers. All the magical Glyphs in Keeper books have disappeared, and the Keeper Library is visible to citizens being no longer concealed by Glyph magic. The Hammerites discover the Chalice where Garrett put it in the Hammerites' Fort Ironwood to activate the Final Glyph. The Pagans similarly discover the Paw where Garrett put it in the Pagan-controlled Docks to activate the Final Glyph.

In the final scene, Garrett catches a young girl attempting to pickpocket him, saying, "It's no easy thing to see a Keeper, especially one who does not wish to be seen", nearly identical to young Garrett's first encounter with Keeper Artemus in The Dark Project.

It had a pretty cool ending that stayed faithful to the series, and it had one of the most frightening and exhilerating chapters out of the entire thief series that takes place in an abandoned Insane Asylum.
The graphics are much more up to speed in the span of four years, and overall was a fun game. Tho I didn't fing the ending as epic as the first two, it was still a good way to end the series.

Thief (2014)

It's been ten years since the last release of any games from the Thief franchise, and I gotta admit, I've never been more excited in my life for the release of a new game. The long rummored Thief 4 game for the past 6 years is finally underway to completion.
The company that will be releasing it had been very hush hush to all fans aroudn the world. And finally they made the big announcement this past spring that THIEF will offically be released 2014 for the PC lovers, and the consoles PLaystation 3 & 4 along with Xbox One.
Unfortunetly, this reboot of the series will not have the long loved original voice actor from the first three THIEF games, but after watching the teaser trailer NUMEROUS times, I've looked past that small detail and look forward to the game anyways.

YES This is offically a reboot of the whole series, and what the offical plot will be based on this time is yet to be known. They've given hints that it'll be taking place during the plague, but other then that I can only wonder who the villain of the game will be.
AHHHHH SOO EXCITED FOR THIS GAME!!! I'VE WAITED SO LONG FOR THIS!!!!

Sadly the newest one sounds like a mess. QTE's, contexual jumps, That annoying new visionmode trend that highlights stuff and slows down time, etc etc.
Sounds like they poured the crappy modern mechanics on hard this time.

Awwwww, thats all?
Of course its going to be a different style of gameplay alltogether tho.
As any video game does, its best to explore new and interesting ideas.
Would that specific reason stop you from even trying the new Thief game? Either way, to me graphics are always over rated and never have anything to do with the fun factor or a game ( I still play SNES some times <3 ) and for the most part, I'll still be trying this when it comes out regardless.
Of course, if its a complete disaster like Assassins Creed 3, then I'll come back and say you where right xD

Things might work out yeah, seen some articles pop up that they are changing things according to player feedback. Always good to see when devs actually listen.
And Im all for new changes and rewriting the formula as long as it fits, for instance I really enjoyed the Tomb Raider reboot. Even though it is such a change from the old formula as a standalone game it was fun and still a valid entry into the series.

I'm still playing through the first one with the "unofficial" patch. The playthrough got interrupted by my motherboard's spontaneous breakdown, but I will be getting back to it soon enough.

So far it's been really great, aside from some of the old mechanics making me slightly annoyed. The aesthetics still feel amazing for such an early 3D game. I'll try to get through all three games before the new one comes out to get a good comparison, and even if it doesn't end up living up to them, at least I will have finally played the legendary Thief games. Hopefully it will be great though.

I'm looking for patches for Thief 2 but I'm loving the shit out of the first and the 10 minutes I've played of 3 to make sure it worked. I've heard they were going for a "dishonoured" feel to it, or a lot of them worked on dishonoured, if so I have low hopes, I was really let down by dishonoured, hopefully I'm proved wrong and I look like a liar. (if anyone knows of a patch for thief 2 actually that'd be amazing)

Here's where you'll find the newest patches for Thief 2 that weirdly popped up recently, possibly from a former developer. Version 1.21 is slightly down the page and should be the newest one available. They should be significant improvements over the base game. Installation instructions are on the same page as well as included with the files you download.

I just recently got into the series when I picked up the first game on GOG sale this past summer and have enjoyed it so far so I am pretty hype for the new game. Though due to me only having a craptop I can't run the third game and will have to play the new one on console.

the new thief looks awesome! I love how they added some skyrim-ish like features in it and I can't wait for it,
you guys think its more like Skyrim + Dishonored kind of thing tho?

Hmmmmm I'll say Yes and No to your last question there.
Cause by all rights, Dishonored technically copied the idea of Thief thus in my opinion, Dishonored is the lacky Thief wannabe.

The STYLE as in the graphics that are being shown, yes it'll be more up to date with modern technology.
BUT the game play style will be the same, as instead of engaging into fights, you'll have to be cleaver and sneeky to achieve your goals flawlessly.

I just recently got into the series when I picked up the first game on GOG sale this past summer and have enjoyed it so far so I am pretty hype for the new game. Though due to me only having a craptop I can't run the third game and will have to play the new one on console.

Well the first two are hands down the best of the three anyways, that is if you really enjoy a fun game with a great storyline. :)
The third one was fairly different and unique in its own way. The gameplay is different because a different developer made the game (the first two where made by LookingGlass studios) BUT despite the storyline not being as amazing as the first two, I honestly loved loved LOVED one particular level which takes place in a abandoned Insane Asylum. <333

Anyways hope you get the chance to play the newest one to come ^__^
I too am very very excited for it.

Edios has announced that originally there was a couple Quick Time events in the game, but have removed them completely. (Yay!) Well... I'm happy cause Quick Time games never caught my fancy. Recently tried the demo game Beyond: Two Souls, and it was more frustrating then it was fun.
Anywho, just letting yall know ^__^